The current anxiety over parenting gets a neat twist in the latest play from Fraser Grace. It is set in a future where the state no longer trusts parents to rear their young for fear that they will slaughter them, as happened during a period known as "the terror". Babies are removed from parents and placed in "safe houses" to be reared by the state. Those who refuse to hand over their children see their offspring killed and are gassed themselves.

So Cathy and Robert are taking a major risk when they decide to bring up a child on their isolated farm. The stakes are upped when a traumatised teenager - a survivor of "the terror" - is sent to live with them by the Senator, a man marked by the past and terrified by the future that he is constructing.

Grace, best know for 2006's Breakfast With Mugabe, is a fiercely intelligent writer, and this is a gripping play, albeit one overloaded with plot. If the dystopian future it paints is not entirely plausible, there are hints of cases such as that of Baby P to ground it in reality. Paul Robinson's production plays on the thriller-like structure to wrack up the tension to terrific effect, and there are good performances all round, with Edward Hughes terrifying as Mark, the child raised by the state to become its unquestioning servant.

But it is Keith Bartlett's performance as the Senator that stands out, not least because Grace gives him real complexity. You can see the damaged human being behind the bland, dark suit. As the future rushes towards us you feel a real chill as he leans towards us and advises: "My dear friends. Run."